21 février 2023 | International, Naval

Admiral Gilday sees uncrewed vessels as critical to US Navy’s future

The U.S. Navy is investing in uncrewed systems — in the air, on the water and beneath the surface — to augment existing and near-future military might.

https://www.defensenews.com/unmanned/2023/02/21/admiral-gilday-sees-uncrewed-vessels-as-critical-to-us-navys-future/

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  • State Department awards IT contract to help combat narcotics

    8 mai 2020 | International, C4ISR, Sécurité

    State Department awards IT contract to help combat narcotics

    Andrew Eversden The State Department awarded General Dynamics Information Technology an estimated $350 million contract for IT services, the company announced May 7. The indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract will provide IT services to the Western Hemisphere Program of the State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. The contract has a base period of one year, with four one-year options. Under the contract, GDIT will provide services to “enhance” the bureau's counternarcotics and anti-crime capabilities, increase the department's ability to deploy new technologies, improve information sharing across different regions and partners, and expand law enforcement capabilities across foreign governments. “GDIT's work with the INL will deliver new technical capabilities to counter-narcotics trafficking, money laundering and other transnational criminal activities,” said Paul Nedzbala, senior vice president for GDIT's Federal Civilian Division. “Our solution will directly support INL's critical mission to minimize the impact of international crime and illegal drugs, protecting both U.S. citizens at home and our partners abroad.” According to USAspending.gov, the State Department has spent about $550 million on services from General Dynamics in the last 12 months. In June last year, GDIT won a $2 billion contract to continue to manage the department's global technical security supply chain. That contract was awarded by the Bureau of Diplomatic Security. https://www.federaltimes.com/govcon/contracting/2020/05/07/state-department-awards-it-contract-to-help-combat-narcotics/

  • How COVID-19 Is Affecting The Defense Industrial Base

    6 novembre 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

    How COVID-19 Is Affecting The Defense Industrial Base

    Jen DiMascio The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated some of the risks that have always existed in the defense industrial base. Although government assistance and a robust Pentagon budget have helped offset initial trials, more challenges are looming. One of the biggest risks to the defense industrial base is that some companies serving the military are too heavily leveraged toward the commercial sector or too reliant on international companies, financial analysts told Aviation Week's DefenseChain Conference. “Some of these places are two weeks from bankruptcy,” says Chris Celtruda, managing principal at Destiny Equity Partners, says. Suppliers are beginning to falter because of a combination of factors, including the need to comply with cybersecurity standards, the pressure that prime contractors such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin have applied to them and their reliance on commercial business. A prime example is the recent bankruptcy of Impresa Aerospace, a Wichita-based company that made parts using computer numerical control machines as well as sheet metal parts and assemblies for Boeing and Lockheed military aircraft but was highly dependent on its work for the commercial Boeing 737 MAX. The U.S. federal Paycheck Protection Program helped delay some business failures, but others are inevitable, says Rick Nagel, managing partner of Acorn Growth. “The Impresa bankruptcy is an example of a lot more insolvencies we may see,” he adds. Weakness among niche companies could pose a problem for the Defense Department in the future. “I'm always amazed at how many critical systems have multiple single points of failure on major programs,” he says. At the Pentagon, officials have been working to keep essential suppliers afloat and to keep production moving through its sprawling international industrial base. For the U.S. Army, that has meant initial disruptions to Apache fuselage production in India and to the flow of generators from Mexico. The Pentagon and the State Department helped ease the stoppage, but the incident has caused them to review the full range of risks to its international supply chain. “I think that we can navigate through this, though it's certainly always going to be complex in today's global economy,” says Patrick Mason, deputy program executive officer for U.S. Army Aviation, adding that he is in the position of putting pressure on vendors to reduce cost, particularly to provide savings on multiyear aircraft contracts. One trend emerging along with the pandemic is a movement toward onshoring or reshoring overseas business for reasons of cybersecurity and the protection of the U.S. industrial base. As that happens, and as the commercial aviation market sags, Raanan Horowitz, president and CEO of Elbit Systems of America sees opportunity. “We are trying to position ourselves around some of those discontinuities,” Horowitz says, adding that the company likes going after opportunities that are not necessarily glitzy but hold value. “We are intensifying efforts toward looking at licensing, taking over orphan product lines and positioning ourselves to be part of the long-term solution.” Horowitz says Elbit is investing in U.S. infrastructure to capture new business. Industry officials see broad support for bringing more of the defense supply chain back to the U.S. The shift stems in part from the COVID-19-related economic downturn but also from longstanding concerns about China. In the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, Congress passed restrictions on contracting with companies that use Chinese telecommunications equipment. Though companies first look for the best value, the threat posed by Chinese parts that either do not work or could transmit classified information back to China is an ongoing concern, says John Luddy, vice president for national security policy at the Aerospace Industries Association. “The concept of reshoring of supplies to better connect our allies and friends, both from a production standpoint and from an operational functionality and alliance standpoint, I think the volume is getting turned up on that a little bit,” he says. “There's also a strong impetus in Congress to look at exactly how vulnerable we are. That's going to be a more intense discussion in the year to come than it has been.” And that trend toward reshoring could have unintended consequences, warns Steve Grundman, founder and principal of Grundman Advisory. “I'm genuinely concerned that benign moves to secure our supply chain to prevent nefarious supplies and code [coming] into particularly our defense supply chain or commercial aerospace supply chain could slip very easily into protectionism,” Grundman says. “If you want to really put pressure on the defense budget, ask the defense industry to reshore the supply chain. https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/supply-chain/how-covid-19-affecting-defense-industrial-base

  • Contracts

    20 octobre 2021 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

    Contracts

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